Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
The chuckle he emitted was foreboding, and his head tipped to the side. “Whatever the cost?”
“There’s no cost too great when it comes to those who are most precious to us.”
I would have paid it. Would have given anything to have brought Jana back to us. But I’d been just as young and powerless as Kane had been.
Little more than a child who hadn’t understood or fathomed the consequences.
Guilt bloomed.
No doubt sensing the sudden turmoil, one of those giant hands suddenly slipped to my cheek.
I gasped at the contact.
Flames igniting. Searing and inciting.
Kane searched my face, his eyes flicking across every inch, as if he held the power to sift through my ghosts.
“Would slay yours, too, if you’d let me.” His words were gravel.
I tried to hide them—the scars that for him were in plain sight. My voice was shallow when I forced out, “I don’t let anyone get close enough for them to see my monsters.”
A shiver rolled through me as I thought of the sense I’d had for months. Maybe there were monsters hidden in the shadows. The feeling that I was being watched. Plus, the unsettling information that I’d found in my sister’s notebook and on her laptop? I couldn’t shake the overwhelming premonition that something was wrong. Wholly off.
Gaze deepening, he stroked the pad of his thumb under the hollow of my eye. “You don’t have to hide from me, Emery. I can see the monsters lurking in your beautiful eyes. Felt them the moment I saw you in my bar the first time. Felt them in your fingers when you touched me. Can feel them now…trying to dim the beauty that you are. But they can’t do that, can they, Little Warrior? Not when you’re so strong. Not when you’re aching to rise above where they’ve kept you trapped.”
A tremble rocked through me.
“Your only concern should be Maci.” I went for the best defense I could find.
Something close to arrogance slid through his features. “Ah, think I’m big enough to take care of you both.”
“I’m not in need of a savior.”
“No, you’re plenty fierce enough. But like you said, sometimes we all need someone to slay our monsters. Sometimes we all need someone to hold us up when life gets rough. Sometimes we need someone to show us how powerful we are.”
“Is that what you want to do? Show me I’m powerful?” I didn’t know if it was a challenge or a plea.
Begging him to put out this fire that rushed through my insides.
Kane angled in closer, his nose just brushing mine, his words seductive wisps that wound around me. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I want to do. Want to show you that you’re powerful. That you’re in control. That you deserve to have every pleasure. Show you what it’s like to be treasured. I want you to be free in me, in a way you’ve never let anyone do before me. Want to erase every scar from your being.”
Unable to suppress it, a blast of fury rushed across his face, so volatile my knees went weak. It wasn’t what I’d expected.
His rage.
The anger that surged through his expression.
He lifted his second hand, both big palms suddenly gripping my face.
I could almost taste the violence that thrashed through his bloodstream.
I was such a fool because I wasn’t afraid.
“I want to know who hurt you so I can make sure it never happens again. Just give me a name.”
“They’re long gone,” I mumbled. Without a trace. No one knew who they were.
“I’d do anything for you, Emery.” Kane inhaled a shaky breath. “I want to set you free.”
“You have.” It pulled out of me without permission.
“Did you like it when I did?” The energy shifted around us. “Did you like me touching you? Did you like it the other night when you got yourself off to the sound of my voice?”
“Yes.” I breathed it.
He pulled back a fraction. Studying me again.
Searching for my truth.
He must have found whatever he was looking for because he suddenly swooped down.
I gasped as his mouth captured mine in a maelstrom of intensity.
His kiss desperate and fierce. Hands tightening as he pulled me against him.
Shock rasped up my throat, and I inhaled a sharp, staggered breath.
It only drew him down into the well of need that he’d built within me.
A well that instantly erupted.
My hands shot out, and my fingers fisted in his shirt in a bid to get him closer.
It was so wrong.
So wrong.
But right in that second, I didn’t care.
I needed this. I needed to feel. I needed to feel something else than the sorrow and the dread that had taken me captive. Needed to feel something other than the loss.
“Kane.” I muttered his name against the press of his lips.
“Right here, Little Warrior. I’m right here. Use up whatever you need of me.”